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Pavel Sudoplatov
Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov (; ; July 7, 1907 – September 24, 1996) was a senior Soviet official in the intelligence services of the former Soviet Union whose career spanned over 34 years in the different intelligence branches of the Soviet Armed Forces. Sudoplatov was involved in several major Soviet intelligence operations, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940 in Mexico, as well as Operation Scherhorn, a Soviet deception operation conducted during World War II. He also provided management of the Soviet espionage efforts which obtained information about the feasibility of the atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project. His autobiography, '' Special Tasks'', published in 1994, made him well known outside the Soviet Union and provided a detailed account of Soviet intelligence and Soviet internal politics during his years at the top. However, some of his claims have been challenged by historians. Early life and career Sudoplatov was born in Melitopol, Taurida Go ...
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Zelman Passov
Zelman Isaevich Passov (; 1905 – 15 February 1940) was a Soviet security officer who headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service, then part of the NKVD from June to November 1938. In October 1938, he was arrested on charges of "participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy". He was shot on the night of 15 February 1940. He was executed a year and a half later. Passov originally joined the secret police, the GPU, in 1922. He received the Order of Lenin in 1937. Early life In the OGPU Promotion and Downfall Awards Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ... (1937) References {{DEFAULTSORT:Passov, Zelman 1905 births 1940 deaths Recipients of the Order of Lenin NKVD officers Jews executed by the Soviet Union People executed by ...
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Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing politics, left-leaning Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of Falangism, Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and Traditionalism (Spain), traditionalists led by a National Defense Junta, military junta among whom General Francisco Franco quickly achieved a preponderant role. Due to the international Interwar period#Great Depression, political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, a War of religion, religious struggle, or a struggle between dictatorship and Republicanism, republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, ...
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Atomic Bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). Yields in the low kilotons can devastate cities. A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as can release energy equal to more than 1.2 megatons of TNT (5.0 PJ). Apart from the blast, effects of nuclear weapons include firestorms, extreme heat and ionizing radiation, radioactive nuclear fallout, an electromagnetic pulse, and a radar blackout. The first nuclear weapons were developed by the Allied Manhattan Project during World War II. Their production continues to require a large scientific and industrial complex, primari ...
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Atomic Spies
Atomic spies or atom spies were people in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada who are known to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early Cold War. Exactly what was given, and whether everyone on the list gave it, are still matters of some scholarly dispute. In some cases, some of the arrested suspects or government witnesses had given strong testimonies or confessions which they recanted later or said were fabricated. Their work constitutes the most publicly well-known and well-documented case of nuclear espionage in the history of nuclear weapons. At the same time, numerous nuclear scientists wanted to share the information with the world scientific community, but this proposal was firmly quashed by the United States government. Atomic spies were motivated by a range of factors. Some, such as ideology or a belief in communism, were committed to advancing the interests of the S ...
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Soviet Espionage In The United States
As early as the 1920s, the Soviet Union, through its GRU, OGPU, NKVD, and KGB intelligence agencies, used Russian and foreign-born nationals ( resident spies), as well as Communists of American origin, to perform espionage activities in the United States, forming various spy rings. Haynes, John Earl, and Klehr, Harvey, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America,'' Yale University Press (2000) ''Retrieved Papers Shed Light On Communist Activities In U.S.'', Associated Press, January 31, 2001 Particularly during the 1940s, some of these espionage networks had contact with various U.S. government agencies. These Soviet espionage networks illegally transmitted confidential information to Moscow, such as information on the development of the atomic bomb (see atomic spies). Soviet spies also participated in propaganda and disinformation operations, known as active measures, and attempted to sabotage diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and its allies. First efforts During the ...
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Disinformation
Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through coordinated campaigns that "weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies." In contrast, ''misinformation'' refers to inaccuracies that stem from inadvertent error. Misinformation can be used to create disinformation when known misinformation is purposefully and intentionally disseminated. " Fake news" has sometimes been categorized as a type of disinformation, but scholars have advised not using these two terms interchangeably or us ...
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Operation Scherhorn
Operation Scherhorn (in English sources) or Operation Berezino (original Soviet codename) or Operation Beresino (in East German sources) was a secret deception operation performed by the NKVD against the Nazi secret services from August 1944 to May 1945. It was proposed by Joseph Stalin, drafted by and executed by Pavel Sudoplatov and his NKVD subordinates, assisted by German antifascists and communists.The official site of the SVR names Pavel Sudoplatov ''the'' head of the operation; Nahum Eitingon, Mikhail Maklyarsky and Georgy Mordvinov his deputies in charge of Operation Scherhorn and Willie Fischer as the chief of wireless communications. The main objective of Operation Berezino was to create the illusion of a large German armed group operating behind the front line in Soviet held territory, and to deplete Nazi intelligence resources through capture and extermination of field operatives sent to assist these fictitious troops. The NKVD set up a fake German "resistance pocket ...
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Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, October Revolution of 1917, Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before Assassination of Leon Trotsky, his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Death and state funeral of Vladimir Lenin, Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism. Trotsky joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, being arrested and exiled to Siberia for his activities. In 1902 he escaped to London, where he met Lenin. Trotsky initially sided with the Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks in ...
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Soviet Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1922) and the Soviet Union (1922–1991) from their beginnings in the Russian Civil War of 1917–1923 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In May 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued decrees forming the Russian Armed Forces, which subsumed much of the Soviet Armed Forces. Multiple sections of the former Soviet Armed Forces in the other, smaller Soviet republics gradually came under those republics' control. According to the all-union military service law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of the Red Army, the Soviet Air Forces, Air Forces, the Soviet Navy, Navy, the State Political Directorate (OGPU), and the Internal Troops, convoy guards. The OGPU was later mad ...
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List Of Historical Secret Police Organizations
This is a list of historical secret police organizations. In most cases they are no longer current because the regime that ran them was overthrown or changed, or they changed their names. Few still exist under the same name as legitimate police forces. Agencies by country Afghanistan *KHAD, Khedamat-e Etelea'at-e Dawlati (KHAD) (Government Intelligence Service), active in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Albania *Sigurimi (Directorate of State Security), active in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania Algeria *Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (Department of Intelligence and Security) Angola *Directorate of Information and Security of Angola (''Direcção de Informação e Segurança de Angola'') (DISA), active in the People's Republic of Angola Argentina *Sección Especial de Represión al Comunismo (SERC) (''Special Section for the Repression of Communism'') *División de Información Política Antidemocrática (DIPA) (''Political Anti-democratic I ...
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The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. As of 2023, the ''Post'' had 130,000 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which were the List of newspapers in the United States, third-largest among U.S. newspapers after ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer (financier), Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy and revived its health and reputation; this work was continued by his successors Katharine Graham, Katharine and Phil Graham, Meyer's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ...
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